1,512 research outputs found
Optical clock recovery employing an optical PLL using cross-phase modulation in a Sagnac-interferometer
Increased serum neurofilament light chain concentration indicates poor outcome in Guillain-Barré syndrome
BACKGROUND
Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is an autoimmune disease that results in demyelination and axonal damage. Five percent of patients die and 20% remain significantly disabled on recovery. Recovery is slow in most cases and eventual disability is difficult to predict, especially early in the disease. Blood or cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers that could help identify patients at risk of poor outcome are required. We measured serum neurofilament light chain (sNfL) concentrations from blood taken upon admission and investigated a correlation between sNfL and clinical outcome.
METHODS
Baseline sNfL levels in 27 GBS patients were compared with a control group of 22 patients with diagnoses not suggestive of any axonal damage. Clinical outcome parameters for GBS patients included (i) the Hughes Functional Score (HFS) at admission, nadir, and discharge; (ii) the number of days hospitalised; and (iii) whether intensive care was necessary.
RESULTS
The median sNfL concentration in our GBS sample on admission was 85.5 pg/ml versus 9.1 pg/ml in controls. A twofold increase in sNfL concentration at baseline was associated with an HFS increase of 0.6 at nadir and reduced the likelihood of discharge with favourable outcome by a factor of almost three. Higher sNfL levels upon admission correlated well with hospitalisation time (rs = 0.69, p < 0.0001), during which transfer to intensive care occurred more frequently at an odds ratio of 2.4. Patients with baseline sNfL levels below 85.5 pg/ml had a 93% chance of being discharged with an unimpaired walking ability.
CONCLUSIONS
sNfL levels measured at hospital admission correlated with clinical outcome in GBS patients. These results represent amounts of acute axonal damage and reflect mechanisms resulting in disability in GBS. Thus, sNfL may serve as a convenient blood-borne biomarker to personalise patient care by identifying those at higher risk of poor outcome
Observation of the Isospin-Violating Decay
Using data collected with the CLEO~II detector, we have observed the
isospin-violating decay . The decay rate for this mode,
relative to the dominant radiative decay, is found to be .Comment: 8 page uuencoded postscript file, also available through
http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLN
Limit on the Two-Photon Production of the Glueball Candidate at CLEO
We use the CLEO detector at the Cornell electron-positron storage ring, CESR,
to search for the two-photon production of the glueball candidate f_J(2220) in
its decay to K_s K_s. We present a restrictive upper limit on the product of
the two-photon partial width and the K_s K_s branching fraction. We use this
limit to calculate a lower limit on the stickiness, which is a measure of the
two-gluon coupling relative to the two-photon coupling. This limit on
stickiness indicates that the f_J(2220) has substantial glueball content.Comment: 9 page postscript file, postscript file also available through
http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLN
Tau Neutrino Helicity from Energy Correlations
We report a measurement of the magnitude of the tau neutrino helicity from
tau-pair events taken with the CLEO detector at the CESR electron-positron
storage ring. Events in which each tau undergoes the decay tau -> h nu, with h
a charged pion or kaon, are analyzed for energy correlations between the
daughter hadrons, yielding |xi| = 2*|h_nu| = 1.03 +/- 0.06 +/- 0.04, with the
first error statistical and the second systematic.Comment: 11 pages, postscript file also available through
http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLN
Search for the Decay
We have searched for the decay of the tau lepton into seven charged particles
and zero or one pi0. The data used in the search were collected with the CLEO
II detector at the Cornell Electron Storage Ring (CESR) and correspond to an
integrated luminosity of 4.61 fb^(-1). No evidence for a signal is found.
Assuming all the charged particles are pions, we set an upper limit on the
branching fraction, B(tau- -> 4pi- 3pi+ (pi0) nu_tau) < 2.4 x 10^(-6) at the
90% confidence level. This limit represents a significant improvement over the
previous limit.Comment: 9 page postscript file, postscript file also available through
http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLN
Measurement of the Branching Ratios for the Decays of , and
Using a data sample with integrated luminosity of about 3.9 fb^{-1} collected
in e+ e- annihilation with the CLEO-II detector at the Cornell Electron Storage
Ring, we have measured the branching ratios for the decay modes Ds -> (eta,
eta') pi and Ds -> (eta, eta') rho relative to Ds -> phi pi. These decay modes
are among the most common hadronic decays of the Ds's and can be related by
factorization to the semileptonic decays Ds -> (eta,eta') l nu. The results
obtained are compared with previous CLEO results and with the branching ratios
measured for the related semileptonic decays. We also report results on the
Cabibbo-suppressed decays of the D+ to the same final states.Comment: 18 page postscript file, postscript file also available through
http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLN
Measurements of the Ratios and
Using the CLEO~II detector we measure , and .
We find the vector to pseudoscalar ratio, , which is similar to the
ratio found in non strange decays.Comment: 11 page uuencoded postscript file, postscript file also available
through http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLN
Search for the Decays B^0 -> D^{(*)+} D^{(*)-}
Using the CLEO-II data set we have searched for the Cabibbo-suppressed decays
B^0 -> D^{(*)+} D^{(*)-}. For the decay B^0 -> D^{*+} D^{*-}, we observe one
candidate signal event, with an expected background of 0.022 +/- 0.011 events.
This yield corresponds to a branching fraction of Br(B^0 -> D^{*+} D^{*-}) =
(5.3^{+7.1}_{-3.7}(stat) +/- 1.0(syst)) x 10^{-4} and an upper limit of Br(B^0
-> D^{*+} D^{*-}) D^{*\pm} D^\mp and
B^0 -> D^+ D^-, no significant excess of signal above the expected background
level is seen, and we calculate the 90% CL upper limits on the branching
fractions to be Br(B^0 -> D^{*\pm} D^\mp) D^+
D^-) < 1.2 x 10^{-3}.Comment: 12 page postscript file also available through
http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLNS, submitted to Physical Review Letter
Search for Exclusive Charmless Hadronic B Decays
We have searched for two-body charmless hadronic decays of mesons. Final
states include , , and with both charged and neutral kaons
and pions; , , and ; and , , and
. The data used in this analysis consist of 2.6~million
~pairs produced at the taken with the CLEO-II detector
at the Cornell Electron Storage Ring (CESR). We measure the branching fraction
of the sum of and to be
. In addition, we place upper
limits on individual branching fractions in the range from to
.Comment: 33 page LATEX file, uses REVTEX and psfig, 14 figures in a separate
uuencoded postscript file, postscript version also available through
http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLN
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